Ravi Vooda / Thougts, Movies, etc.....

The investing world loses a legend..

2012-02-22T12:11:00.000+05:30

Legendary investor Walter Schloss, one of the Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville passed away due to leukemia on 19/02/2012. He was 95 years young.

R.I.P. Walter Schloss (28/08/1916 - 19/02/2012)

Switching banks without changing a/c number soon

2012-01-02T17:06:00.000+05:30

After portability in mobile and health insurance finally we get chance to maintain account number even after switching with bank accounts. Definitely a great move. Sometime later we might see things like NSDL and CSDL for banks as well where banks are just a broker themselves??

Switching banks without changing a/c number soon: The idea is to save customers the inconvenience of opening and closing bank accounts or keeping multiple accounts if they have to shift to a new location or find their bank's services unsatisfactory.

RBI Sells dollar??

2011-12-15T20:15:00.000+05:30

The article says that RBI is selling dollar to rescue rupee. But, it looks like it has sold rupee, because it is reaching its threshold. Well there might be some more increase to 55/57 levels.

The move might also a signal that we are the beginning of end of the current fall which i think may last for further 2-3 months. We might see turn around signals starting Jan/Feb end. Hopefully by that time, I will be completing building my portfolio and be in 0% cash and start booking profits from mid 2012 :)

Lets see how it unfolds.

Why premiums for online term plans are so cheap ?

2011-12-06T15:29:00.001+05:30

Next time while you plan your insurance, better buy it online. They are considerably cheap when bought online.

Here is an article which tells you why.

Why premiums for online term plans are so cheap ?:

Denmark Introduces ‘Fat Tax’ on Foods High in Saturated Fat

2011-10-14T06:00:00.000+05:30

Finally some country has taken steps to control the fat intake a citizen takes.... The tax is the first of its type in the world.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/10/02/denmark-introduces-fat-tax-on-foods-high-in-saturated-fat/

Like they say "people are what they eat". People become fat beacause of their poor food choices and not able to control what they eat.

Hope some day in India, these type of taxes are also there. More than tax, there should also be an indication of the fat percentage and the tax attached to the products. Otherwise people might forget it in the long run.

Our goverment is a slave of food processing industry. Increase such type of products is like helping the pharma industry to get better and better.

Like they take milk, convert into cheese, people turn fat, get diseases, visit doctor and fuel the pharma industry.

ICICI banking wrong date display

2010-10-31T21:23:00.002+05:30

Noticed a strange thing while doing few banking transactions in ICICI bank. The transactions shows date as 1st-Nov-2010 when the date itself is 31st-Oct-2010 .
Click on the image to enlarge

Wish they rectify such kind of mistakes. Such things scare customers. Thank god only date changed not the balance

I really want to learn….!

2010-09-17T14:43:00.000+05:30

I really want to learn….!: "

Most business people pay lip service to education and training. If you are a business man and know your business well you still need to learn about money. You need to be updated about HR. What about logistics? – really the works.

Ask a group of business people if they’d be willing to attend a seminar on learning business finance and personal finance at least half of the people in the room say yes. Give them a specific date and time, and only a handful will actually sign up! And surely I have found that it is not about price.

I have done finance seminars priced from Rs. 30000 per person per day down to ZERO – and found the response pretty similar!

It used to surprise me when I heard that 50% of all businesses fail in their first three years. Now that I teach finance – personal and business, I am surprised that the rate is so low! Many people have no clue as to why they are earning, what will they do with money, how to save / invest or ….! Many business men have very poor grip on marginal costing, budgeting, opportunity costs, break even, pricing, – too much of it is “intutive” – and that hurts.

Most successful professionals embrace a “culture of learning.” This is especially true during difficult financial times.

Personal and professional self-development is a journey which has to be enjoyed —not a destination which can be reached. The most amazing learning person I have met is Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Kanchi. When a journalist asked him “how can you call yourself a Jagadguru when all you do is lead a small bunch of people in South India, he said “You interpret Jagad(world) guru(teacher) differently from me. You think I am the guru of the world, my interpretation is “the Jagad(world) is my guru”.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the highest return.”

With that in mind, here’s an action item for this week. Look at your financials (e.g. cheque book, credit card statements) for the last year. Have you spent anything on some type of on-going business education? Worse still is all your financials well organized.

If you aren’t “emptying some of your purse into your head,” take a few minutes to think about what you want to learn to help you build your business—and sign up for something this week! Don’t put it off any longer.

If you want to earn more, you need to learn more!There are a few lines which are very powerful:

Finance is changing, are you learning?

If you think financial literacy is expensive, try financial ignorance!

We make smart people, richer!

I train millionaires and millionaires in training!

Oh, and reading these articles from time to time won’t hurt either.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

He Picked a Chair for "Him".

2010-08-21T17:23:00.000+05:30

He Picked a Chair for "Him".: "

A man's daughter had asked the local priest to come and pray with her father. When the priest arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The priest assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit. 'I guess you were expecting me,' he said.

'No, who are you?'

'I'm the new priest ,' the priest replied. 'When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up.'

'Oh yeah, the chair,' said the bedridden man. 'Would you mind closing the door?'

Puzzled, the priest shut the door.

'I've never told anyone this, not even my daughter,' said the man. 'But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At the common worshipping place I used to hear the priest talk about prayer, but it always went right over my head..'
'I abandoned any attempt at prayer,' the old man continued, 'until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, 'Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with God. Here's what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see God on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I'll be with you always.' Then just speak to him and listen in the same way you're doing with me right now.'
'So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful, though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.'
The priest was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the priest that her daddy had died that afternoon.
'Did he seem to die in peace?' he asked.

'Yes, when I left the house around two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange, In fact, beyond strange--kinda weird. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside the bed.'

Source:Unknown.

Smart spending tips…

2010-08-04T14:05:00.000+05:30

Smart spending tips…: "

Frankly this blog has not done enough justice to share good ways to save money while spending it! So here are a few thoughts (nothing original, I assure you). You must have heard it in some form or the other. Some ideas are so old that it is being touted as new in the USA. So you know your granny’s mom did it in her times. Of course she copied her mom…and she did not know it meant carbon credits or how she was saving the world. If she were in Obama land she would have patented it….but read on!

1. Eat at home: Simple granny advise? Good for the health and good for the wealth.

2. Entertain at home: A movie watched at home (rented or downloaded film) + popcorn+ ginger tea – a far superior combination to the sugary syrup that u get at malls.

3. Dress appropriately: I once saw an European complaining about the air-conditioning in Hotel Taj President, Colaba, Mumbai. And I was almost shivering. This guy was wearing a thick vest, a silk shirt, a silk tie, an outside vest and a coat. A thick vest + a 3-piece suit is good for Delhi peak winter, not for an a/c which can take the temperature to 18 degrees! I was wearing a Tee shirt. Sounds simple? Well some people do not know it.

4. Liquor does not solve work problems! It increases credit card debt. Credit card balances are not easy to erase!

5. Use public transport – you can save the world and some of your bank balance. Incidentally you also burn some calories by force. You save gas if you are a yankee, you save petrol if you are in any other part of the world.

6. A cycle bought for Rs. 30,000 is cheap if it encourages you to ride a cycle instead of using a car. The money you save on petrol will pay for the cycle in 6 months. After than the cycle is FREE. A car continues to use petrol

7. Use a cloth diaper for your kid! LOL this advise is from the USA. My great grand mother knew it, my mother knew it, …my wife and sister did not. I hope my daughter does it!! Such an amusing thought. And you cut fewer trees.

8. Shop intelligently: Not everything is cheap in the same shop. Here is a great business idea of a website which publishes comparative prices for branded / unbranded goods across shops. Many people will love it. Any takers? Just remember you read about it here first. Remember to have a mobile format ready.

9. Do not buy because a sale is announced. How suddenly people ‘need’ things which are advertised for is quite amusing. Remember a ‘Bringing Up Daddy’ cartoon Hubert saying “I have got poor by the amount of money you saved while buying in a ‘Sale’. Funny? Marketers know it works!

10. Going for a walk in a mall is a good idea only if you are walking without your purse! Goods are displayed in such a way that even God would have been tempted, be careful.

11. Pay cash for everything that you buy – including a car. If you decide that you will not borrow, you buy less than what you need. Earned cash seems to be far, far more valuable than cash that is yet to come! If you cannot pay cash without touching your kid’s education money or your pension money, do not buy anything.

12. I liked this idea from a friend – be friends with guys / gals who compulsorily upgrade everything in their life! Cameras, laptops, cars, – some hand me downs can be nicely put to use. If you keep your ego under control, this could be fun. So when a friend is buying a new house, you can be sure he / she will want to furnish ‘suitably’..you know what to do! The first owner takes the steepest part of the depreciation.

13. No financial planner who has sold you a product will like this – seek newer term insurance rates. Rates keep falling every week in the US and every month in India. Of course take the new one before you drop the old one!

14. Make a need list, want list, great to have list and a ‘will keep only if somebody gifts to me list’ and a ‘I hope to acquire it in the next birth’ list! All these lists are dynamic but the sequence should remain the same.

15. Set up a SIP: nothing works like an automatic transfer of money from an ‘easy to remove account’ to ‘a little difficult to remove’ account. If you see money in a savings bank account you might withdraw, but not from a ‘Money market mutual fund’ account.

16. Do not buy a house bigger than your current need: The typical broker talk is ‘you will buy a house only once, buy as big as you can’. This is utter nonsense. Buy exactly what you need now, you can find a bigger house when you need one.

17. Pay at least 50% down payment for the house: This will mean you will pay lesser interest than if you borrowed a higher amount. Also you will buy a smaller house than what the agent / funding company are pushing you to buy.

18. If you are starting a new hobby set up a limit on how much you will spend on equipment. Limit it to some secondhand stuff before you commit to gadgets,

19. Stop treating shopping as fun. It is sometimes as bad as alcoholism. Competing with the neighbor is bad. Competing with the shop-keeper is a disaster.

20. Prioritize what is correct, good, healthy, worthwhile over what is ‘sexy’, ‘cool’, ‘fun’ – normally that could be illegal, immoral and / or fattening.

Will add more…there seems to be a lot of demand for smart spending tips…

Five ways to be happy with yourself

2010-08-03T11:24:00.000+05:30

1. Don’t take others too seriously. Try to understand that no one is perfect. If you feel that someone is being overtly critical then be frankand point it out to that person.

2. Accept the fact that you are made a certain way. If you aren’t happy with your weight or looks, try and improve on it. But don’t put yourself down.

3. Don’t try to blend in with others. Just because all the people in your group are wearing saris for a wedding, you don’t have to do the same. Wear what you are comfortable in. If you are comfortable in your skin, you will exude a certain confidence that will make you attractive to others.

4. Don’t put up with any kind of bullying. Whether it’s in your college, work or home, make sure that you put forth your point of view firmly. It’s great to adjust, but not at the cost of changing yourself drastically.

5. If you are happy with yourself, then you will be sure of your thoughts and beliefs. You may not follow the herd mentality, but at the same time, you won’t end up being different just for the heck of it.

THOUGHTS ON THOUGHTS: Bring out the animal in you!!

2010-07-30T15:34:00.000+05:30

Buddies go thru this article. One of the best article that I have read recently.

THOUGHTS ON THOUGHTS: Bring out the animal in you!!: "If one looks hard enough, one can see 'investing' all around. One can learn something or the other about investing from virtually all aspect..."

being lazy

2010-05-13T10:41:00.001+05:30

have been lazy (before leaving KL) & busy (after coming back to Hyderbad) since quite some time. No time to blog lar..

Should you have more than 1 credit card?

2010-02-07T22:23:00.004+05:30

I used to think no until now. But now have changed by opinion.. People say when you have more credit cards you are bound to spend more.. because you multiple times your credit limit and you can get into trouble when this becomes a habit.. I agree 100% with this logic. Though I have 100% control on my debts and credits, still I cancelled my remaining credit cards except Citi bank card which I love a lot. Their service is awesome. I just love it. Ok.. Why did i cancel the other cards when u have such confidence on u? Because why take chance? Sometimes even if you are very confident on what you can do.. situations can make u fail... learned such things from my experiences before. But the mistake I made here is.. " I did not have a back up plan!!! Though I thought, I can make purchases with my debit cards, some time credit cards are necessary.. A lesson learnt."

Ok now coming to topic, Citi bank has its service upgrade or some nonsense which does not allow transactions to do for 4 days.. Its not even 1 complete day.. Shit!! This is found out when I need to do a recharge. Nothing much I can do expect for writing this post. So, I have decided to go for another credit card.. probably SBI ( beacuse of its service, better interest rates, free goodies and attractive offers). This will be as my backup in case my present credit card sucks or vice versa.

Well, now I have a solution for this, let me advice citibank ( uchita salaha.. ) Why in this world do you need 4 days service down time. Cant you have a backup database to do this and sync up your transactions with some damn application after service upgrade. If you cannot do it, Ask ME!!
Credit card and Other banking services need to be efficient as well provide 100% up time.

Never be afraid

2010-02-07T18:06:00.000+05:30

Coming Soon: Skype for iPhone Over 3G

2010-02-04T05:11:00.001+05:30

Coming Soon: Skype for iPhone Over 3G: "
Skype has just gone on the record confirming that a version of Skype for iPhone that supports calls over 3G is coming “real soon now.”

Skype for iPhone currently supports calls over Wi-Fi, which severely limits how useful the Skype Skype application can be on the go. In a blog post this morning, however, Skype’s Peter Parkes confirmed that a 3G-capable version of the application is on its way, which will make Skype for iPhone iPhone “totally mobile.”
The Skype for iPhone team is also asserting that call quality — especially for Skype-to-Skype calls — has been drastically improved and will have near CD-quality sound. The application will also maintain the call quality indicator, which will be either be green, yellow or red depending on your 3G network coverage.
We also know that the team is looking at developing a new version of Skype for the Apple iPad.
Here’s what Skype had to say about the pending application:

“Last Thursday, Apple introduced the iPad, which we’re very excited about here at Skype. David Ponsford … and his team are reviewing the device and its specs, and you can expect to hear more from us about Skype for iPad in due course.
What does this have to do with calling over 3G? The SDK (Software Development Kit) that Apple provides to developers like Skype has been upgraded for the iPad. The new version, 3.2, removes the restrictions on calling over 3G, which is great news.
You may have seen other apps offering calls over 3G, but we’re holding ours back for a little bit longer. Why? So that we can give you the very best audio quality we can. When our 3G-capable Skype for iPhone app is released, it’ll let you make calls in wideband audio, giving you greater clarity and fidelity – because that’s what you expect from Skype.”

You can also watch the video below for more information:

Career advice

2010-01-27T07:33:00.003+05:30

Mahindra Satyam named business leader of the year

2009-12-23T10:29:00.002+05:30

Mahindra Satyam has been named business leader of the year after the big scam by Raju. After Mahindra has taken over Satyam, since then there is a turn around in its business. It has come a way ahead since it was a year ago. It has won the confidence both employees and clients.

Mahindra Satyam is now setting sail to favorable winds. As an investor myself , I feel very happy with this news. My hearty congratulations to the Mahindra Satyam team in achieving this. Expecting Technology sector to move fast in 2010 on reason on strong dollar, I expect Mahindra Satyam share to reach new levels. Hope it bags few more good clients :)

This was how Satyam drama came to an end a year ago

Why are gold prices going up?

2009-12-21T22:37:00.000+05:30

Why are gold prices going up?: "

A senior executive from a leading private sector bank met up for lunch. One of the topics that came up was “Will gold prices go up?”. He immediately said, YES, SURE, it will shoot up if we sell more gold. Intrigued, I asked him to explain.

He told me a story of one PYT that the bank had recruited for the front counter. She was supposed to sell gold coins. The first 6 customers came with cash, and bought the gold. The 7th customer got a credit card. She sold to him also.

5 days later the reconiciliation was attempted. There were 10 coins short. On being asked the PYT said, of course I have the details of the card sales – she had faithfully recorded the card names, and the card numbers! And the bills were given to the client. She did not know how to charge a credit card…that is all!

Why did this happen?

Is it the employee’s mistake happen? Because of the employee? No.

think about it..and leave a thought!

Markets open at 9am from tomorrow

2009-12-17T08:41:00.003+05:30

Yesterday after BSE's surprise announcement to open the market 10 minutes earlier, NSE also made a decission to open the market by 9 from Friday. Few hours later BSE also announced that it also will be opening the market from 9am. The end timing however will be 3:30pm as usual. well. People say its a cold war between NSE and BSE. For me it looks like they have bluffed people by projecting a high drama. Since they want to implement the new timings.

Very sooner or later we might see markets from 9am-5pm, since SEBI has also cleared the timings. The move was intended to keep Indian markets inline with Singapore and Hong Kong.

Brokers are not happy with this move since it increases the work pressure.More people are to be appointed for the new timings. On the positive side people are expecting lesser fluctuations in markets.

For normal investors it should not make any difference though. Not sure how traders might feel as I dont do trading :)

Lets see what happens... Anyhow this move can be considered as an historic move both by BSE and NSE.

Pigeon: Impossible

2009-12-10T14:29:00.001+05:30

nice video

My Recent Gmail experience

2009-11-16T13:36:00.005+05:30

Two days back I got an alert from GMAIL saying that my allocated space is soon going to be finished. It surprised me because my usage of email crossed 7GB :) Nevertheless I cannot delete those emails since I need them. Since my gmail is a little google for me...

Now i am left with two options either I have to purchase extra space by google or download them to my desktop.

The extra space however was cheap which was $5/year for 20 GB. Thinking of purchasing it... any advices??

However for a safer side, I decided to download them to my laptop. So i downloaded Thunderbird. Why Thunderbird?? two reasons.. 1. it is free 2. It can organize messages in threading way just as the way Gmail does. Organizing by subject as thread is a feature that use very much in gmail.

This is when I was taken by a new surprise when i started downloading my mails into my laptop. It started downloading all the mails that I have deleted earlier #$$%%@@. These mails are not even in my trash.. so unique. Then i wondered if Google was counting the space for these deleted ones also. Should mail this query to gmail... Though it irritated me a bit, found some of my old useful mails. However after the process went on for a day, gmail does not allow me to download any more. Then after a but of googling I found out that gmail locks the account for 24 hours if the downloaded data is high or the download rate is more.. so annoying.. Should try again after a day before my account gets full...

Anybody faced such experience before?

Interesting advertisement

2009-11-13T13:56:00.003+05:30

(click on the image for bigger size)

After a long long time finally could find some time to post an article.. This does not mean I am having a full busy schedule. :) Could not reveal further due to my limitations.

Found this ad while surfing. Felt very interesting and creative. Best way to advertise a company and also to educate people.. especially children to brush their teeth properly.

Google logo for Gandhi Jayanti

2009-10-02T09:05:00.001+05:30

Pepsi To Cease Advertising

2009-09-30T21:27:00.003+05:30

Is it Pepsi's biggest mistake or a major turn around? Only time can say!! However its a revolutionary decision. People say around 40% of new business is driven by advertising. Nooyi was pretty confident in his statements.. Lets see how it will benefit the company.

We Know It's Good, And That's Enough' Says CEO

PURCHASE, NY—PepsiCo sent shockwaves through the carbonated beverage industry Monday when the multibillion dollar corporation announced that it would cease all advertising of its popular soda product, effective immediately.

"We know it's good, and everyone's pretty happy with the overall taste, so why spend all our time worrying about what other people think?" PepsiCo CEO Indra K. Nooyi told reporters during a press conference at the company's corporate headquarters. "Frankly, it just feels sort of weird and desperate to put all this energy into telling people what to drink. If they don't like it, then they don't like it."

Added Nooyi, "That's not really any of our business anyway."

According to Nooyi, top PepsiCo brass held a series of meetings over the past several months before unanimously agreeing Monday that they all enjoyed Pepsi, and that the company's century-old history of massive, high-budget ad campaigns, cross-promotional tie-ins, merchandising, and Super Bowl halftime extravaganzas had been "a big mistake."

Executives then released a statement to shareholders declaring that PepsiCo is now "what it should have been all along: a company that just makes soda, and doesn't get caught up in trying to make everyone like it."

In response to a question about whether the elimination of Pepsi's marketing and advertising divisions would hurt the company's ability to compete with rival soda manufacturer Coca-Cola, Nooyi expressed no concern.

"Vying for the greatest market share shouldn't be a soft drink company's be-all and end-all," said Nooyi, who added that if she's happy at the end of the day, that's what really matters. "After all, it's not like this is some kind of Cola War or anything."

"Look, Coca-Cola is a terrific product," Nooyi continued. "Millions of people choose it over Pepsi every day. Are those people wrong? Of course not. Concepts like 'right' and 'wrong' shouldn't even apply. It's a soft drink."

Nooyi told reporters the company's $1.3 billion annual advertising budget would be put into Pepsi's savings account, spread among various charitable organizations, and divvied up into generous bonuses for the company's minimum-wage factory employees.

Claiming that "taste is subjective," Nooyi further stated that those who hadn't already heard of Pepsi were unlikely to begin drinking it now, and that the company was perfectly content to rely on word of mouth to sell its product.

"You can't taste an ad, anyway," Nooyi said. "People are going to make up their own minds regardless of whether we spend millions trying to inform them that Taylor Swift drinks Pepsi. I mean, seriously, does it really matter if Taylor Swift drinks Pepsi? She's just a human being like everybody else."

Concluding the press conference, Nooyi stated that she wasn't even sure why she was talking about any of this in the first place, asked the assembled reporters whether they didn't have better uses for their time, and suggested that everybody just go home, hug their loving spouses, and play—really, truly play—with their children before life passes them by.

"Hey, there's a slogan for you," Nooyi said. "Spend more time with your families."

To be a millionaire

2009-09-30T21:10:00.000+05:30

To be a millionaire: "

At any age being able to say this is great. It summarizes many of my thoughts….

Power of Money…by Adam Khoo (Singapore’s youngest millionaire at 26 yrs.)

Some of you may already know that I travel around the region pretty frequently, having to visit and conduct seminars at my offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Suzhou (China). I am in the airport almost every other week so I get to bump into many people who have attended my seminars or have read my books.

Recently, someone came up to me on a plane to KL and looked rather shocked. He asked, ‘How come a millionaire like you is traveling economy?’ My reply was, ‘That’s why I am a millionaire. ‘He still looked pretty confused.

This again confirms that greatest lie ever told about wealth (which I wrote about in my latest book ‘Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires’). Many people have been brainwashed to think that millionaires have to wear Gucci, Hugo Boss, Rolex, and sit on first class in air travel. This is why so many people never become rich because the moment that earn more money, they think that it is only natural that they spend more, putting them back to square one.

The truth is that most self-made millionaires are frugal and only spend on what is necessary and of value. That is why they are able to accumulate and multiply their wealth so much faster.

Over the last 7 years, I have saved about 80% of my income while today I save only about 60% (because I have my wife, mother in law, 2 maids, 2 kids, etc. to support). Still, it is way above most people who save 10% of their income (If they are lucky).

I refuse to buy a first class ticket or to buy a $300 shirt because I think that it is a complete waste of money. However, I happily pay $1,300 to send my 2-year old daughter to Julia Gabriel for Speech and Drama classes without thinking twice.

When I joined the YEO (Young Entrepreneur’s Orgn) a few years back (YEO is an exclusive club open to those who are under 40 and make over $1m a year in their own business), I discovered that those who were self-made thought like me. Many of them with net worth well over $5m, travelled economy class and some even drove Toyotas and Nissans – not Audis, Mercs, BMWs.

I noticed that it was only those who never had to work hard to build their own wealth (there were also a few ministers’ and tycoons’ sons in the club) who spent like there was no tomorrow. Somehow, when you did not have to build everything from scratch, you do not really value money. This is precisely the reason why a family’s wealth (no matter how much) rarely lasts past the third generation.

Thank God my rich dad foresaw this terrible possibility and refused to give me a cent to start my business.

Then some people ask me, ‘What is the point in making so much money if you don’t enjoy it?’ The thing is that I don’t really find happiness in buying branded clothes, jewellery or sitting in first class. Even if buying something makes me happy it is only for a while; it does not last. Material happiness never lasts, it just gives you a quick fix. After a while you feel lousy again and have to buy the next thing which you think will make you happy. I always think that if you need material things to make you happy, then you live a pretty sad and unfulfilled life…

Instead, what makes me happy is when I see my children laughing and playing and learning so fast. What makes me happy is when I see my companies and trainers reaching more and more people every year in so many more countries. What makes me really happy is when I read all the emails about how my books and seminars have touched and inspired someone’s life. What makes me really happy is reading all your wonderful posts about how this blog is inspiring you.

This happiness makes me feel really good for a long time, much much more than what a Rolex would do for me.

I think the point I want to put across is that happiness must come from doing your life’s work (be it teaching, building homes, designing, trading, winning tournaments etc.) and the money that comes is only a by-product. If you hate what you are doing and rely on the money you earn to make you happy by buying stuff, then I think that you are living a life of meaninglessness.